Back to Monkey Tricks
Are the many incidents of what seems like the mischievous political behaviour by representatives of the Sangh Parivar mere monkey tricks or do they point to the suicidal instincts of the Bharatiya Janata Party?
Anand Teltumbde (tanandraj@gmail.com) is a writer and civil rights activist with the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights, Mumbai.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), issued a written threat to the students of St Xavier's College, Mumbai, against inviting Sheetal Sathe – a singer of the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organisation working among dalits and working classes of Pune, but branded by the state as the Naxalite outfit – to their annual inter-collegiate youth festival Malhar. The Maharashtra Police declared that they would not provide security, and so Sheetal had to withdraw from the panel that was to discuss "Invisibility of Caste" on 14 August.
While Narendra Modi has set himself on a fast track to accomplish the neo-liberal development agenda of the Congress, which the United Progressive Alliance II government under Manmohan Singh hopelessly failed to advance, the hydra-headed Sangh Parivar, intoxicated with Modi's dazzling win, has begun its old monkey tricks to drive its Hindutva agenda. Even accounting for the fact that some of these sharp practices are part of the conscious strategy for the forthcoming assembly elections, one suspects that much of these ploys are natural to the Parivar constituents, which see their dream coming true in the present political situation. It is their moment to accomplish the "Hindu Rashtra", whatever that means.
Hindutva and Neo-liberalism
Interestingly, according to their sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, India is already a "Hindu Rashtra". One wonders, if this is so, then the mission of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) stands accomplished. What then is the raison d'être of the organisation? Is Bhagwat then going to dismantle it and retire for good? At the least, Bhagwat should stop the monkey tricks of his Parivar members forthwith lest they prove to be Modi's Achilles' Heel and suicidal to the BJP.
The two agendas, namely, Hindutva and neo-liberalism, as such are not contradictory; rather they complement each other provided they are managed well. Hindutva as a right-wing fundamentalist ideology is part of a global trend correlated with neo-liberalism. The correlation between neo-liberalism and the upsurge of right-wing religious fundamentalism has been noted by many scholars all over the world. Neo-liberalism, quite like Hindutva, has multiple faces to obfuscate its core. Just like the core of Hindutva could be discerned as brahmanic supremacism, the assertion of the mythical glory of Aryavarta, the core of neo-liberalism could be seen in its extreme individualism and social Darwinist ethos. Neo-liberalism thus engenders structural and cultural crises for the vast majority of people, who tend to seek security under some occult power at the individual level and imagine some "other" being responsible for their plight at the collective level. This process is exploited by the ruling classes whose need it is to keep people divided and disoriented so that their games go on. This is the broad explanatory process underlying the resurgence of revivalist and fundamentalist ideologies in every part of the world during the last three decades.
This process however needs to be delicately managed lest it should erupt into civil conflagration vitiating the peace desired by the beneficiaries of neo-liberalism, i e, business communities and middle classes. Modi had proved to be the master of this process, having successfully transformed Gujarat into a laboratory of Hindutva as well as neo-liberalEl Dorado. It is the testimony to his masterly skills that he marshalled the entire neo-liberal establishment to propose his candidature as its choice for the topmost job in the country. He fully knows his obligation to the capitalist class that heavily invested in him. Moreover, he finds himself virtually sans opposition, whereby he does not need any further polarisation of the masses. However, the spate of events and utterances of the Sangh Parivar during the short period after his becoming prime minister indicate that his understanding may not necessarily be shared by the 180-odd outfits under the umbrella of the RSS deliberately designed to create diverse noises. Many of them will enthusiastically display the wares they are specialised in, necessarily in contradiction to Modi's strategy.
Misreading the Verdict
The Sangh Parivar should understand that the people who have given Modi a massive win are the people beyond its faithful constituency. BJP's vote share was almost static, at around 22%, since 1998. The rise of 9% in its share of the vote this time has made all the difference. In the previous Lok Sabha elections, BJP had polled 102.7 million votes as against 171.5 million this time. In the increase of 68.5 million, the 40 million votes (out of a total of 100 million) of the first-time voters have been crucial in giving it a majority in the Lok Sabha. These young people have voted not as much for the BJP as they did for Modi (the entire campaign being conducted in a presidential style) and not for his Hindutva but for his developmental rhetoric, albeit, with communal overtones. They believed that he did achieve development in Gujarat, notwithstanding the exposures that this was untrue as many of his other claims. These young voters, as also the other 28.5 million switch-voters, were obviously not Hindutva fans. They too believed Modi will create growth opportunities, bring down prices and create jobs; they were sceptical of BJP's communalism. If Modi fails to deliver on these promises, they could easily topple his apple cart in the next elections. Likewise, corporate India that loosened its purse in favour of Modi would not like the investment climate vitiated by communal clashes. Their displeasure would prove the last straw on the camel's back, which the BJP can ill afford. It is imperative then for Modi to be focused on development which he knows better as his conduct so far clearly demonstrates.
An associated reason for the BJP's massive win is indeed the deliberately subdued tone of Hindutva. Although nobody believed that Modi could shun the RSS agenda, which was voiced by him at all opportune moments, of course, with due care that it would not mar his development rhetoric, people condoned it as the inevitable electoral game all the parties played. However, buoyed by the election results, the Sangh Parivar appears to mistakenly assume that the mandate is for Hindutva. It conveniently forgets that BJP's vote share is still a meagre 31%, which implies that 69% of the voters at least do not favour it. The resurgence of Hindutva does not seem to be entirely strategic and short-lived, aimed at the forthcoming assembly polls in some states. Even if it is strategic, it could be quite risky, given the fact that it contradicts its dominant message of development not many months ago. The post-election cacophonous campaign that India is a Hindu nation may gladden hard-core Hindutvawadis, but it could alienate others, who would feel that they were cheated in the last elections.
Communal Overtures
Communal polarisation on the eve of elections has been developed by the BJP into an art form which has been used in ample measure despite the rhetorical focus on development. Although Modi stuck to his carefully carved out image of the harbinger of development, Amit Shah, his unscrupulous confidante, incriminated in many a murder case in Gujarat, was the ace artist to sculpt a dazzling victory for him in Uttar Pradesh using this art form. Pravin Togadia, at loggerheads with Modi but nevertheless an important figure in the Parivar as the chief of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, infamous for his vitriolic tongue and foolhardy actions, asked his gangsters to vacate Muslims from a Hindu locality in Bhavnagar during the thick of the elections. Another BJP leader, Giriraj Kishore from Bihar, had simply declared that those who opposed Modi should go to Pakistan. Although BJP occasionally came out with statements dissociating itself from such overtly communal and indefensible remarks, it knew that the Hindutva hotheads are inconsequential after the purpose of communally polarising the people was served.
After the election results, there has been a spurt in communal incidents by the Hindutva brigade. A little known outfit, calling itself Hindu Rashtra Sena, headed by a habitual criminal, Dhananjay Desai, lynched one innocent Muslim youth, Mohsin Shaikh, to death while
he was returning home on his bike in Pune. Communal fires were stoked at Saharanpur, Moradabad and Meerut. The Indian Express in its four-part series reported that in the 10 weeks following the election results (16 May), Uttar Pradesh Police recorded 605 low-key communal incidents. Obviously, UP is not the only state; the same is perhaps happening in all the states that are
going for assembly elections. Besides such overt communal flare-ups, there has been a covert controversy to keep the atmosphere communally charged. For instance, the Dwarakapeeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand issued a controversial statement that the Saibaba of Shirdi was a Muslim saint and not a god and so Hindus should not worship him. It blissfully boomeranged but not without creating communal turbulence.
Recently, The Hindu (16 August 2014) amusingly reported a Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLA from Goa, Lavoo Mamledar saying, "Wearing of Bikinis impedes India's superpower ambition". It was reiterated thereafter by the cabinet minister, Sudin Dhavalikar, also of the MGP, calling for the ban on bikinis and pubs. His brother Deepak Dhavalikar, a minister, then spoke of Modi making India a "Hindu Rashtra". Outdoing him, Goa's Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza of the BJP claimed that India was already a "Hindu Nation" and he a "Christian Hindu". Around this same time, two Facebookers found themselves booked by the Goa Police for accusing Modi of masterminding a possible holocaust and circulating a morphed photo of Deepak Dhavalikar in a pink bikini. The same police however rejected a hate-speech complaint against Muthalik, in which the latter called upon Hindus to arm themselves with swords and Bhagwad Gitas.
Are these moves mere monkey tricks or suicidal instincts of BJP?
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